Murat Karayilan

Murat Karayilan (1954-) was the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from 1999, succeeding Abdullah Ocalan.

Biography
Murat Karayilan was born in 1954 in Birecik, Sanliurfa Province, Turkey to a family of Kurds. He joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1979 and was active in the PKK's struggle against against the Turkish government in his home province, and in 1980 he fled to Syria after the coup in Turkey. He called on Kurds to stop speaking the Turkish language, cease paying taxes, and to leave the Turkish Army, and Karayilan smuggled drugs to fund the PKK. In 1999, he succeeded Abdullah Ocalan as the PKK's leader after his arrest, and he led the PKK in its 2015 rebellion.